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Historia Naturae, Suita (1967)

| Animation, Short | 31 October 2010 (France)
Historia Naturae, Suita Poster
An eight-part portrait of animal species in the different biological classes, accompanied by a different style of music. Each animation mixes drawings, pictures, real animals and animated skeletons.

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An eight-part animated portrait of various species, accompanied by a different style of music. The various parts are: Aquatilia (foxtrot), Hexapoda (bolero), Pisces (blues), Reptilia (tarantella), Aves (tango), Mammalia (minuet), Simiae (polka) and Homo (waltz). Each animation mixes drawings, pictures, real animals and animated skeletons. Written by Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>

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Animation | Short

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31 October 2010 (France)  »

Also Known As:

Histoire naturelle (suite)  »

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Watch Svankmajer's newer films...save ones like this for last.
12 July 2017 | by – See all my reviews

I have seen most of Czech master stop-motion filmmaker Jan Svankmajer's films...."Historia Naturae, Suita" was among the last. I am very glad it wasn't among the very first, otherwise I might never have grown to love Svankmajer's films and given up earlier. It's not a terrible film but the filmmaker simply hadn't mastered his craft and his earliest films are mostly very dry and easy to dismiss. In this one, he goes through the various orders of animals (fish, reptiles, etc.) and does a very fast-paced job of splicing film together of various representations--some of which are stuffed, are skeletons, are alive or are drawings. As it's a 'suite', there's music to accompany all this and I found the music, at times, a bit too frenetic. Not an enjoyable film for me.
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